6A Cookies: Oatmeal, Dark Chocolate, Pear (or Cranberry) and Walnut Cookies

I first made these cookies (and froze a huge batch) while I was waiting for Baby to make her appearance. I was already on maternity leave, but she was “late,”  taking her time, getting ready for the world. Once she was here, they provided me with nourishment in the middle of the night while I was providing her with hers; breastfeeding builds up an appetite.

More recently I made them with Baby in the carrier. She’s so curious, looking from the mixer button to the bowl, watching the beater turn. Soon enough she’ll be taking her first bites and eventually be able to eat one of these cookies herself. And we’ll continue to bake them together. I look forward to that day!

I wanted to name these cookies after my baby. But to preserve our privacy, I opted for “6A” instead. 6 As like in her complete name. 6 As like all the good ingredients in these cookies. Tasty little nuggets of nourishment.

Recipe: 6A Cookies: Oatmeal, Dark Chocolate, Pear (or Cranberry) and Walnut Cookies

This recipe is adapted from the Bon Appétit cookbook’s Oatmeal cookies with raisins, dates, and walnuts. They freeze well. Makes approx. 30 cookies.

1 cup flour (I use a combination of spelt and whole spelt flours)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
25 mL honey (liquid)
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried pear cut into small pieces or dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Using a standing or hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and make sure everything is well combined. Incorporate egg on low speed, then beat in honey and vanilla and continue beating until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Finally, mix in oats, chocolate chips, walnuts and pear pieces/dried cranberries.

Drop batter by tablespoonful onto prepared cookie sheets. Moisten fingertips and flatten cookies slightly. Bake approx. 10 minutes until golden brown.

Sorry Baby, I shouldn't have tempted you, but you'll get to eat one soon enough.

Basler Leckerli: Honey, Spice and Everything Nice

I finally started the Christmas baking. With Baby in the picture this year, I had to make some tough decisions: which cookies to bake. Most of my regular recipes, including most favourites, are staying on the shelf. The cookie cutters too will gather dust until I’ve got a little helper in the kitchen next year. [Anyone with kids is certainly laughing at my naivete and thinking, “You wait and see. Your little helper will just help make a big mess!”] Luckily Basler Leckerli, one of my favourite Christmas cookie recipes, is quick to make and makes lots of cookies with little effort.

Basler Leckerli date back to the 17th century. At the time, making gingerbread was a recognized trade. The use of roughly chopped ingredients differentiated the gingerbread made in Basel from that made in other parts of Switzerland and Germany, where they were made with finely ground nuts. Go to Basel today and the tradition continues. Leckerli are available year-round from a local shop called Läckerli Huus (House of Läckerli), but I find homemade ones taste better!

This recipe is from my mom and originates, of course, in her hometown of Basel, Switzerland. It contains neither fat nor eggs. The cookies are dense and wonderfully flavoured with honey, candied citrus peel, almonds and spices.

Recipe: Basler Leckerli

Quantities in weight – scale required!

500 g honey
300 g sugar (I have successfully cut the amount of sugar in half and use only 150 g)
300 g slivered almonds (the ones that look like little sticks)
70 g candied lemon peel
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
50 mL rum
500 g flour

Glaze:
250 g icing sugar
2 tbsp rum
2 tbsp water

The honey and flour mixture for Basler Leckerli before rolling out. It’s quite sticky, but needs to be worked while still hot. Sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking.

Basler Leckerli rolled out and ready for baking.

Working quickly to cut the baked Basler Leckerli while still hot.

The glazed Basler Leckerli. Final step: let cool completely, separate and store in an airtight container.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper, greasing and flouring the paper. I also grease the baking sheet to prevent the paper from sliding around.

In a large pot, bring honey and sugar to a boil. Add almonds and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and quickly stir in rum, spices, candied lemon peel, and flour.

Place honey and flour mixture on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with flour to prevent mixture from sticking to rolling pin and roll out evenly. I find this step is easier done by two people: one person to hold the baking sheet and the second to roll out the dough. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Prepare glaze while cookies are in the oven. Mix rum, then water into icing sugar one tablespoon at a time. If necessary, add more water one teaspoon at a time to achieve the right consistency. The glaze should be very thick.

Remove cookies from oven and slide onto cutting board. Cut immediately into squares/rectangles and glaze while still hot. I find the best way to spread the glaze is to use a metal spatula; spoon the glaze onto cut cookies in sections and spread quickly with the spatula. Doing this step with two people can make sure that the glaze gets on before the cookies are too cool for it to spread nicely.

These cookies store for a long time in an airtight container. It’s not unusual for them to be/get a bit hard. Either leave them like that and bite carefully (great for dunking in tea or coffee) or put piece of bread in the container to soften them up.

Bread Pudding Thanks to Baby and Stefano Faita

I admit, the portion I ate was twice this size!

Baby already knows her mother well. One of the only daytime tv shows I consider worth watching on the few channels we receive is In the Kitchen with Stefano Faita. I only recently discovered it, because it happens to coincide with one of Baby’s feedings. Now I watch it as long as Baby’s feeding schedule allows.

The other day Stefano did a show about using leftover bread. The last recipe of the episode was a bread pudding. He brought back memories of my childhood.

When I was little, we had bread pudding for dinner every once in a while. My mom would diligently let dry every scrap piece of bread and collect them in an old ice cream container. When the container was full, it was time for bread pudding. She’d soak the bread in a milk and egg mixture, then mix in some sliced apples and raisins. Only lightly sweetened, she’d serve it with homemade vanilla sauce.

Inspired by Stefano and with memories on my mind, I decided it was time to make bread pudding. We would eat it for dinner/dessert following a hearty soup. I admit that I purposely bought bread for the recipe, because I wanted to use an appropriate egg bread. (We ate a light rye bread at home when I was growing up. Inevitably this old rye bread found its way into the bread pudding and the flavour of the bread was a bit too pronounced for my taste… What I always expected to be a more dessert-like meal just wasn’t.)

Since the loaf was big enough for two dishes, I made two versions (on separate occasions); both were much less healthy than my mom’s. The first was a dark chocolate and sour cherry bread pudding and the second was a white chocolate, blueberry and hazelnut bread pudding. I’d make them both again. So simple, so yummy, and a perfect way to use old bread 😉

Recipe: Dark Chocolate and Sour Cherry Bread Pudding

Makes one 9″ x 9″ dish. Tastes great – almost better – the next day!

4 cups egg bread (day old; I used Rideau Bakery‘s egg bread; one loaf was good for two dishes)
1½ cups sour cherries (I used frozen ones, but I think preserved ones (from a jar) would work too)
2 tbsp rum (optional)
½ cup chopped dark chocolate (I used Lindt)
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
3 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream (35%)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9″ x 9″ square baking dish.

Combine sour cherries and rum. Set aside. (If using sour cherries from a jar, drain them first, although it’s ok if there’s a bit of cherry juice in the mix.)

Bread pudding before baking.

Tear bread into pieces and place in a large bowl. Add sour cherry mixture and chocolate. Toss lightly to combine.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar until combined. Whisk in milk and cream. Pour egg custard mixture over bread and stir to evenly combine. Let stand for 15 minutes so that bread absorbs the egg mixture.

Pour bread and custard mixture to the buttered dish; it will fill the dish to the top. Bake until custard is set, and top of bread pudding springs back lightly when touched, approx. 45 minutes.

Recipe: White Chocolate, Blueberry and Hazelnut Bread Pudding

Makes one 9″ x 9″ dish. Tastes great – almost better – the next day!

4 cups egg bread (day old; I used Rideau Bakery‘s egg bread; one loaf was good for two dishes)
1½ cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
½ cup chopped white chocolate (I used Callebaut)
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
3 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream (35%)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9″ x 9″ square baking dish.

Tear bread into pieces and place in a large bowl. Add blueberries, white chocolate and three-quarters of the hazelnuts (keep the rest to sprinkle on top). Toss lightly to combine.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar until combined. Whisk in milk and cream. Pour egg custard mixture over bread and stir to evenly combine. Let stand for 15 minutes so that bread absorbs the egg mixture.

Pour bread and custard mixture to the buttered dish; it will fill the dish to the top. Sprinkle reserved hazelnuts on top. Bake until custard is set, and top of bread pudding springs back lightly when touched, approx. 45 minutes.

Cooking and Baking With Baby

Pursuing one of my favourite pastimes with Baby.

Since Baby arrived my priorities, aside from taking care of her, have been getting exercise and fresh air and eating right. Just like Baby, I get grumpy and tired if I don’t eat regularly and properly. Also, it’s no secret that I love to eat and cooking is one of my favourite activities.

No surprise then that before having Baby, I was already thinking about how to nourish myself once she arrived, knowing that I’d be regularly occupied with her and, for a while at least, less mobile. The arrangement we came up with worked well and we’ve continued to prepare and enjoy satisfying meals!

For the first three weeks after her birth, the deal was that David, who was off from work, was responsible for food and making sure I ate properly. He did the cooking and didn’t even use any of the meals we’d prepared in advance. Then my mom visited for two weeks and took over the kitchen. She spoiled us with her excellent cooking and baking. She actually added to our freezer stores.

We’ve even tried some new recipes, all of which are keepers:

• Spicy-sweet green beans (we added some thinly sliced pork and served it with rice)
• Lebanese-style green beans with chickpeas (our garden produced a lot of green beans this year)
• Stuffed zucchini from Ottolenghi’s Plenty cookbook
• An unfrosted version of this zucchini-almond cake
• Banana oat bars (my new favourite quick-to-make snack)
• An eggplant-tomato-feta cheese dish (inspired by what we had in the fridge)
• Sage and brown butter apple pie (deliciously fresh and bright-tasting apple pie)

Last week, we started our new routine of weekly menus. It starts with a meal plan – a tried and tested tool! – using what we have on hand. We cook at least one weekday meal on Sunday, making sure there’s enough for at least two lunches (a hearty soup is easiest). Then we dip into our freezer stores for one meal per week and gratefully accept grandmaman’s offer to cook dinner on Thursdays.

The days we cook fresh, the meal is prepared bit-by-bit whenever I have a moment throughout the day.  By the time David gets home from work, it’s ready to cook. Often I’ll do the cooking myself, because it gives me a break from Baby – as much as I love her, I welcome a break by that time of day! – and the satisfaction of doing something I enjoy. We’re not cooking superheros though, and have also resorted to take-out several times in the last seven weeks.

Last night this tart, a fall favourite,  followed a meal of homemade soup. Making it was a three-day affair: I made the dough and lined the cake pan the first day, blind baked it the second, and finished the tart on the third. That’s not unusual these days – whatever it takes to get it done!

Recipe: Alsatian Apple Cream Tart

1 recipe pastry dough
4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into eighths (use apples that will hold their form during baking; I used Cortlands)
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp sugar
1 cup cream (either 15% or 35%; the latter will give a richer, creamier result)
3 egg yolks (I’ve also made it with 2 whole eggs; using yolks will give a richer, creamier result)
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup raisins
1 pinch salt

Heat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9″ cake pan.

Prepare the pastry dough. Roll it out to 1/4″ thick and line the cake pan. Weigh it down and blind bake it for 10-15 minutes. Remove weights and continue baking for another 10 minutes until lightly coloured. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

In a bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice and two tablespoons of the sugar. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine cream, egg (yolks), vanilla, raisins, the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, and salt.

Arrange apple slices on tart shell. Pour cream mixture over apples. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until apples are done. Allow to cool slightly before removing from cake pan.

Locally Grown

Homegrown vegetables for my midwife and my little sprout.

My baby girl was born just over a week ago, at the same time as a generous harvest of tomatoes, zucchini, beans, kale and Swiss chard from our garden. That means my midwife has been getting “bonus pay” in vegetables!

At the end of every house call — there were three in the first five days after birth — my midwife would leave our house with a bag full of fresh garden goodies. One day she even forgot her baby check-up bag in our living room, leaving instead with just the bag of vegetables!